BassBlaster

St Lawrence winning baits, Spybaits work year round, No goat in bassin

Today’s Top 5

KVD fer sher is the best of all time.

Man, lots of peeps have already said Kevin’s the best, but I always hesitated. Not that the VanDaminator ain’t great, but what about Clunn, Nixon, Brauer, etc.? How can you compare different eras and all that.

Well here’s where I’m at: KVD has won a bunch, he’s won in different bassin’ eras, and the Elitists say this era has the toughest competition so far so…. Btw, his first win was in 1991, when Brandon Palaniuk was 4 years old, new cars looked like this Chrysler New Yorker…

…and this was what the Cowboys’ stadium looked like:

My fave KVD win was at the Pittsburgh Classic because the winning weight was: 12-15. Over 3 days. Here’s what that win looked like — weird how Kevin and Trip look the same…

…but can’t really say the same about Skeet and Hack:

Where was I — oh yeah, the St. Lawrence. Was KVD’s 24th win in 300 derbies, or an average of 1 win for every 12.5 tourneys fished. Not too dang bad.

This one he was mostly dropshotting a Strike King Dream Shot (chartreuse blue glimmer) in current “as fast as he could” with this giant wimp stick — lookit the size of that reel:

Also used KVD jerkbaits (clear ayu, sexy ghost minnow), Rage Swimmers (ghost shad) and a wacky-rigged Ocho (looks like gp candy), plus an unnamed spybait on the last day:

> “Smallmouth are very aggressive by nature, but you have to give them what they want for what mood they’re in. Sometimes they’ll chase something 20 yards and eat it, and other times they’re just really timid.”

So KVD is the “B.O.A.T.”

Best Of All Time. Yep BOAT fits with bassin’, but calling anyone great at anything a GOAT is nuts to me. And I even like goats too, man, especially the ones that faint dead out when you scare ’em:

[This post may be an excuse to mention one of my favorite critters….]

Seriously, tho — do these goats remind you of KVD or Tom Brady or some other greatest of all timers?

Didn’t think so. But I CAN see some other Elitists in there…hahaha fellers!

B-Rock gits his Flanders on fer his first top 5 finish.

[Does that shirt make his arms look long or is it just me?]

2nd-year pro B-Rock Mosely got his first top 10/top 5/top 2 Elitist finish at the St. Lawrence, kinda stout for a guy from MS. How did he do it? One word: Flanders.

Do believe this is the first — or first acknowledged — high Elitist finish using the Flanders (aka “Ned”) rig. I checked with NASA and they said it doesn’t look like any planets are going to fall out of orbit so I guess that’s okay? What he told me:

> I was running a pattern upriver toward the lake on shoals at a certain depth. I was concentrating on shoals in 16-25′ with not much current on them.

> I wasn’t getting many bites but usually had good quality. Each day I caught fish on places I haven’t fished before.

> Most of my fish came on the Ned rig with just a 4″ [Senko-type] bait.

> Sunday 4 of my weigh-in fish came on a dropshot with a Netbait Contour Worm (brown chartreuse) with a 3/8-oz weight. When the wind was blowing, I had to use the dropshot to keep contact with the bottom.

> Friday after I made the run back to Waddington, I culled one time on the Bagley Knocker B (shad) on a sand flat.

> I used the tube each day when I got back to launch for last minute drifting. I caught several, just none that helped.

> I used the same set up for the Ned rig, dropshot and tube: 7′ 4″ MHF Spiralite Defiant spinning rod with an Ardent C-Force 3000 reel. Topwater: 7′ 2″ MHF Spiralite Defiant rod with Ardent Apex Elite reel.

BP’s lucky shorts get him 3rd.

What would you do if you had lucky shorts? First of all, you’d make sure no one knew about ’em and wear rain pants all day:

But on the final day weigh-in, you’d be like, “Hello world! Check these!”

Those look like board shorts — doin’ the gnarl, bruh! BP says they’re Huks from the KC Scott collection. (Pretty sure that dude is the founder of KC and the Sunshine Band.) Your secret’s out now BP!

He was dropshottin’ in 8-30′ around rock/sand/grass edges with: Zoom Z-Drop (green weenie), #2 dropshot hook, 3/8-oz tungsten weight, Alpha Angler DSR rod, Daiwa Exist 2500 reel, 15-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid, 8-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro leader:

When Mercer and JO hit the St. Lawrence smallies.

Happened on a “Factoids of Feeshn” show Dave did couple years back with Overstreet. Best thing about it is JO doesn’t have a clue how to use a wimp stick…which is normal! Check it:

He hates spinning gear so much he even started to hand-line fish:

Okay that’s not really what happened…but that doesn’t mean it ain’t true! #fakenews

News

1. MO: Basser injured in late-night collision…

…with breakwater on Lake of the Ozarks. Hopefully he’s okay:

2. AR: Man recovering from hit by party barge.

On Hamilton, sounds like a long recovery tho:

Hang in there bro.

3. NY Elitist rookie Hartman does it again.

“It” being his 4th top 10 this season, a 7th at the St Lawrence. Pretty dang stout…and believe it or not he’s still #2 to Dustin Connell in the Bassin’masters ROY standings. Truly hoping it ain’t no southern bias…lol let’s see what the crazy bassin’ old lady rumor mill does with that one.

KIDDING…but please do ask Trip about it, and about the fact that that moon landing wasn’t real man!

4. B.A.S.S. AOY standings shaken up.

Former leader Ott DeFoe is now 10th after a painful 99th at the St. Lawrence. Brandon Palaniuk leads because…lucky shorts!

5. New BOOYAH Flex and Streak crankbaits now on TW.

Gitcha Flex II squarebill and Streak IV deep-diving cranks now! Deal is totally different construction, bulletproof, different sound and probly more things I’m a-fergettin’.

6. FL: FWC simulated tourney a Bienville Plantation.

> …to assist with an ongoing research initiative studying water quality in boat livewells during summer bass tournaments.

Place has tons of big dumb basses…trying not to be too bummed I wasn’t invited…sniff….

7. AR considering reg changes for 2018.

Including “removal of the 13″ minimum length limit on Lake Ouachita spotted bass.”

8. MI: Invasive red swamp crayfish found.

I blame Kim Stricker of Hook n’ Look — hahaha Kim! Here’s what one looks like so gitcha red on:

9. OK doing first-ever statewide fish inventory.

Word is they were inspired to do this by a famous doctor:

10. TX company names beer after a buzzbait.

Not a stout beer, but #stout anyhow:

New ICAST stuff comin’ at ya soon yo!

Tip of the Day

Jacob Wheeler: Spinbaitin’/spybaitin’ year round.

Since KVD trotted one o’ these baits out at the St. Lawrence, trottin’ out this tip fer ya — J-Wheels on spybaitin’ year round:

His bait o’ choice is the Storm Arashi Spin.

Quote of the Day

He told me that if someone wanted to learn how to catch bass, find a school of bass and fish for them 365 days and see how they moved and how you would catch them under different conditions every day of the year, and [then] you could catch them anywhere in the country.

Guy paraphrasin’ Larry Nixon. Totally believe it, and remember Nixon was a feeshn guide before he was a pro basser. BUT about follerin’ that school around…bass-heads ain’t zackly known for their patience:

Shot of the Day

While the Elitists are in smallie land, check this bulbous j-j-j-j-giant, caught on a Megabass S Crank:

[giant bloated smallie shot ain’t here, sorry!]

Random

The moon could contain water.

Johnny Morris applied to NASA to build a Bass Pro there. No wait…he already owns part of the moon so….

Sign up another bass-head!

If you’re forwarding every Blaster to other bass crackheads, tx much — or you can email me the addys and we’ll take care of it! We’ll never send spam, sell the list or anything else crazy….

Use the best!

Git on these yo!

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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass.

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